“Fast Start to the Day”

Q: Where downtown can I get a breakfast sandwich that’s quick, cheap and good?

A: Like fried chicken and tacos, breakfast sandwiches are a basic food group that chefs have lately seen fit to doll up with all sorts of fancy flourishes. That’s fine if you have a fork, knife and time to spare, but during the workweek, many eaters like you are willing to trade quality for speed.

Downtown, if you’re partial to jam on a biscuit, you could pay a visit to Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit. But when I think breakfast sandwich, I think egg, cheese and a roll or English muffin. If the line’s not too long at Brown’s Court Bakery, the Cannonborough-Elliottborough mainstay keeps just such a sandwich warm and ready. And a little further north, $5.50 buys a downright terrific Taylor Pork Roll at the brand new North Central Delicatessen, a wisp of a counter at the corner of Huger and Dewey streets.

Northerners who move here often complain they feel suffocated by the amount of pork they encounter on menus, but North Central’s selection of Chicago-made sausages and New York-made cold cuts is a good reminder that swine isn’t solely a Southern preoccupation. Taylor ham, though, comes from Trenton, N.J.: It’s similar to bologna, and is delicious with scrambled egg, cheese and plenty of mustard.